£4 million awarded to develop vaccines that protect livestock and tackle growing biosecurity threat

Funded by the UKRI-BBSRC and Defra, and led by The Pirbright Institute, the project will develop an mRNA vaccine platform for use across major livestock species. This platform will help prepare for future epidemics, tackle antimicrobial resistance, and accelerate the development of next-generation animal vaccines. 

The Surrey team, led by Dr Jai Mehat and including Prof. Roberto La Ragione, will focus on the development of an mRNA vaccine for avian pathogenic, E. coli, by examining different proteins and determining how well they trigger immune responses. Avian pathogenic, E. coli, causes considerable economic losses to the global poultry sector.  

As part of the project, the Surrey team will also work with leading experts from the Roslin Institute, the National Measurement Laboratory (NML) and CPI's RNA Centre of Excellence. The project will work to develop vaccines targeting other high-priority livestock diseases: influenza A virus (IAV), porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and bluetongue virus (BTV).